


Secret Virtues

by lferion



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Community: Sweet Charity, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-22
Updated: 2010-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-08 05:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/73169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amanda knows many stories, including several Methos would rather she didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Virtues

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rhianona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhianona/gifts).



> Written for Rhianona in the Sweet Charity spring 09 auction. Her prompt was Methos and Amanda, "No one gossips about other people's secret virtues." - Bertrand Russell. I apologize for being so very late in getting this written.
> 
> Many thanks to Auberus, without whom this might still not be written.

"So, Joe, did the Old Man ever tell you about the time he adopted a bunch of street-kids? Spent a summer (a very _cold_ summer) putting stranded turtles back in the sea?" Amanda, elegant Amanda, dressed to the nines and looking like she had never handled a turtle in her life except with a silver soupspoon, leaned conspiratorially against the bar. "Or, oh, how about the time he saved three village maidens with one 'I do'?"

Joe put her drink - something layered and brightly colored - down in front of her, eyes narrow with amusement. "No, can't say as he has."

Methos looked over from where he was savoring the first swallow of a fresh beer, brows drawing together in growing suspicion. The front legs of his chair reconnected with the floor. Amanda blithely ignored him.

"Well, a long time ago in what might as well be a galaxy far far away, that is to say, the Macedonian uplands in the third century anno domini, there lived a young man the local herders and villagers called both wise and foolish: Dysos you see could read and write - Greek and Aramaic, probably other things as well - but he was an indifferent wrestler, and preferred weaving cloth and spinning tales to herding and hunting. One village wag, festival-drunk, and, it is said, having had his advances rebuffed, was wont to call him 'Penelopos' or even Penelope, after the wife of the wandering hero."

"Amanda!" For a wonder, there was a hint of color rising in Methos' cheeks, and he actually looked embarrassed. "How do you even know that story? No!"

Amanda turned and smiled very sweetly at him. "Piers-Paul Matthieu, you _lost_ that wager, remember?" Then her look softened to something more genuine, but no less impish or direct. "And I've known that one for centuries. Rebecca told me, before I'd ever met you. Admittedly, it was quite some time before I realized that Dysa, Methos and Alun the wing-footed, beak-nosed, quick-fingered 'young immortal' I knew were all the same person, because she didn't tell me that part. Other things, though, she did tell me." She took a deliberate sip of her cocktail. "_I_ took that bet because I knew I couldn't lose."

Fascinated, Joe watched as Methos winced and slouched several inches lower in his chair. The beer bottle became an object of engrossing interest. Amanda's eyes were sparkling with mischief, her perfectly painted mouth quirked in glee. Joe's fingers itched for pencil and paper, keyboard or tape recorder. He took the obvious cue. "Bet?"

Amanda settled herself comfortably on the barstool. "Oh, that's a story in itself, but first I have to tell you the tale of the wedding of Philipos, archon of Arid'aia and Dysa the well-endowed."

Joe nodded, listening with avid ears.

"Now, Dysos had been been found wandering lost after the last of the winter snows had begun to melt, and having no family, been adopted by a widow of the region, wise in the ways of healing and herb-craft. She had three daughters, and her only son had died. Her name was Cylla."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Secret Virtues (the Blackmail and Bars Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/189863) by [be_themoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/be_themoon/pseuds/be_themoon)




End file.
